I think it's a great hire for where this group is at -- Lavy gets a lot out of his players in the first couple of years that he's there and then it tends to teeter off. And he likes to play a fast, offensive style which should be good for this squad. The players should also afford Lavy a better PP than he had in NSH, so all around, he should be a good hire. Not a long-term hire, but definitely one that could bring WAS to another cup final appearance during Ovi's career.

Great defensive system coach.


This hiring is going to kill Ovechkin's shot at Gretzky's goal title.

is he more of a rush style or dump and chash style system? Due to Washington's physical playstyle I think they benefit from a Dump and Chase more

The Predators were 6th in the NHL in GF/GP when Laviolette got fired this year, and 8th in the NHL over his full tenure in Nashville. His Flyers were 5th in the NHL in GF/GP while he was there. The "Laviolette kills offense" argument seems really overblown to me. He seems to be subpar at coaching the power play, but his teams don't struggle to score at ES.

He doesn't really do a dump and chase system (thought it's kind of ingrained in NSH's DNA ever since Trotz). It's a good mix of offense and defense -- probably a mix of Trotz and Boudreau if that makes sense. He gets a lot of offense out of his clubs, but still defensively responsible. He did try to use more speed off the rush with NSH.

Which is exactly what the Caps were starting to struggle with (ES). Ovechkin was the only goal scorer at 5v5 vs the Islanders. Puhthetuc.

awful take... people said the same thing about Trotz.

As long as the Caps can get an assistant coach who's really strong at managing the power play, there really shouldn't be much of an issue. I'm more interested to see if there's a commitment to adjusting the power play setup/scheme when it isn't working, which is something that the PP under Reirden lacked. The 1-3-1 set up is getting kind of stale, and the setup is basically stationary outside of whoever is controlling the puck at the half-wall.

Even strength performance wins games. Lack of performance on special teams (especially the PK) loses games.

Lavy is an offensive system coach. Briere had some good insights about his methods/focus coaching. Basically he got pissed if the offense didn't get good looks with their zone possession. (I am over-simplifying.)

Love what he did with the Flyers and think he'll be great early with the caps. He has a tendency to burn bright early and wear out his welcome which is fine since your window is the next three years.